Friday, May 14, 2010

The Islanders have agreed to terms on a three-year entry level contract with goaltender Kevin Poulin.

Poulin is coming off his fourth and final season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Victoriaville Tigers. He posted a 35-16-0 record this season, a 2.63 goals against average and a .916 save percentage. In 169 games, Poulin finished with a 81-65-0 record over his career. The Montreal, QC native joined the Sound Tigers at the end of his 2008-09 junior season and served as the back-up net-minder to Nathan Lawson and Peter Mannino in the final games of the AHL season. Poulin was drafted by the Islanders in the fifth round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft (126th overall).

There is a lot of hype with Poulin. Where he ends up playing at the beginning of the season remains to be seen. It's always nice to see a low draft pick come in and add depth to the organization, so Kudos goes to the scouting staff once again. This also takes care of Ridderwall not signing with the Isles. Poulin and Koskinen will be a nice tandem if not this year, then in the near future. More to come on future draft pick signings.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

So there have been some minor news since the playoffs began, so I'll briefly touch on a few noteworthy moves/news and add a comment or two on each.

The Islanders officially came to terms with defense prospect Calvin de Haan on a three-year entry level contract. The Islanders picked de Haan with the 12th overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.

This is somewhat significant, considering he was making a case for the Islanders to keep him with the big club at the start of last season. I do believe however, with the depth on defense, that de Haan needs a perfect camp to make the team this year. A year or two of AHL grooming will be very beneficial for both parties.

Goaltending prospect Stefan Ridderwall turned down the Islanders' offer for next season, which means that the Islanders will not retain his rights as of the June 1st deadline. Ridderwall has agreed to play with Djurgarden IF Stockholm to become the team's starting goaltender next season.

Not really surprised here. Ridderwall really wasn't on the radar until this year when he began to show significant improvement in net. If he does improve and then decides to become and NHL goaltender, he would probably be too expensive to be an Islanders backup anyways. Best of luck to him.

Final thought: Okay, so I've been reading a lot about the Islanderspossibly moving to Queens and the Wilpons (New York Mets owners) are involved. Here is a small take on my part: The Islanders still have a lease with Nassau County until 2015. So for now, I'm taking this news as a strategy to get Kate Murray and Co. to get there act together and get ANYTHING done. I just read that Bud Selig, MLB commissioner, has no problem with the Wilpons getting involved with the Islanders. For now, it's just news worth reading, but it's just preliminary. Five years is a long time, however, if Charles Wang can get a great deal that could allow him to recoup close to 200+ million dollars in loses, then he should seriously consider talking with the Wilpons.